Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community on Wednesday announced a new mechanism for delivering urgent humanitarian aid to the crisis-hit southern African country.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, whose country currently chairs SADC, said financial and material aid would be channeled through a new structure called the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development Assistance Framework (ZHDAF).

Johannesburg  - "A terrible beauty is being born," the leader of South Africa's new opposition Congress of the People (COPE), Mosiuoa Lekota, said on opening the party's inaugural conference in the southern city of Bloemfontein at the weekend.

Whether in quoting Irish poet William Butler Yeats' "Easter 1916", which reflects on the human toll of political heroism, Lekota was considering his future as an opposition leader in South Africa, or merely toying with his nickname ("Terror," awarded for his prowess on the football field) is uncertain.

Harare/Johannesburg - Political tensions in Zimbabwe heightened Tuesday as President Robert Mugabe's government claimed that a "terrorist assassination attempt" had been made on a notorious top officer of the security forces.

The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper said Air Marshal Perence Shiri, commander of the Zimbabwe Air Force, was ambushed by unidentified gunmen as he was driving to his farm in the Bindura district about 80 kilometres north of Harare on Saturday night. It said he suffered a gunshot wound in the palm of his hand.

Perth, Dec. 16 : South Africa's new "White Lightning", Dale Steyn, has vowed to work on the Australian batters with raw pace.

Steyn and Australia rival Brett Lee will engage in their own pace showdown in the captivating battle which will set the tone for the grudge series, reports the Courier Mail.

Both men are known to send the speed gun soaring past the 150km/h mark.

Steyn, who has taken 60 Test wickets at 19.41 in 2008, has promised to leave nothing on the tarmac.

Johannesburg  - South Africa was bracing for a tense Reconciliation Day in the southern city of Bloemfontein as the ruling African National Congress and the opposition Congress of the People (COPE) prepared to go head to head with rival rallies.

At the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, December 16 was set aside as a day on which to foster reconciliation between the country's various racial groups. Prior to that, it commemorated a key Afrikaner military victory over the Zulu nation in 1838.

Perth, Dec. 16 : South Africa''s mental conditioning coach Jeremy Snape, a former England off-spinner, last night disclosed that the Proteas players are attending secret psychological workshops to mentally torment their Australian opponents in the Test series starting from Wednesday.

The Courier Mail quoted Snape, as saying that he had instructed the Proteas to disregard past failures in Australia.

The man with a masters degree in sports psychology has hosted workshops for the South Africans where he insisted the battle of the minds would be easier without Australia''s retired champions.